17:8 Goliath 1 stood and called to Israel’s troops, 2 “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose 3 for yourselves a man so he may come down 4 to me!
17:20 So David got up early in the morning and entrusted the flock to someone else who would watch over it. 5 After loading up, he went just as Jesse had instructed him. He arrived at the camp 6 as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting its battle cry.
17:26 David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and frees Israel from this humiliation? 7 For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?”
17:45 But David replied to the Philistine, “You are coming against me with sword and spear and javelin. But I am coming against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel’s armies, whom you have defied!
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”
3 tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.
4 tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.
5 tn Heb “to a guard”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “with a keeper”; NIV “with a shepherd.” Since in contemporary English “guard” sounds like someone at a military installation or a prison, the present translation uses “to someone else who would watch over it.”
6 tn Or “entrenchment.”
9 tn Heb “and turns aside humiliation from upon Israel.”